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THE SHADOW BROTHERS by A.E. Cannon

THE SHADOW BROTHERS

By

Pub Date: June 1st, 1990
Publisher: Delacorte

Two previously inseparable friends--one white, one Navaho--find new, different directions in this wry, well-told story. Henry Yazzie, sent to Utah for a better education than his reservation offers, has grown up with foster brother Marcus Jenkins. Henry is handsome, brilliant, athletic, and a poet; Marcus' idea of a literary classic is Tarzan and the Ant Men. Still, the two have gotten along famously until their junior year, when Henry takes up with shallow but shimmeringly beautiful Celia and is also, for the first time, forced to think seriously about his heritage--both by his tradition-minded grandfather, who wants him back on the reservation, and by a hostile Hopi schoolmate who calls him an apple (red outside, white within). Meanwhile, Marcus begins to realize that he's been sleep-walking through life, faithfully following Henry's lead, one step behind. Cannon develops both characters with a sure hand, drawing out the tension as Marcus gains assurance and Henry finds his self-confidence shaken. Despite angry confrontations, the brothers (and their family and friends) are held together by ties of affection too strong to break. Like Cannon's engaging first book, Cal Cameron by Day, Spider-Man by Night (1988), this is about decent-hearted people trying to figure out who they are in a world where laughter and hope outweigh the threat of tragedy.